Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a staple-refill, in which a plurality of sheet-type connected staples are stacked and accommodated, capable of supplying the staples to a stapling machine.
Related Art
Electric stapling machines are disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2004-358977, JP-B2-4042159, JP-A-11-235679 and JP-A-07-148674. Among the electric stapling machines, there are known a type of stapling machines which are built in a paper processing device provided adjacent to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine or a printing machine. The electric stapling machine includes a motor as a driving source, and sequentially strikes the staples. For example, a staple-refill, in which a plurality of sheet-type connected staples are stacked and accommodated, is mounted in a cartridge detachably provided in a stapling-machine main-body. With the electric stapling machine, if the cartridge incorporated with the staple-refill is mounted in a magazine of the stapling-machine main-body, a lowermost sheet-type connected staple is sequentially sent out to a striking section during a stapling operation. The sent-out sheet-type connected staples are sequentially bent into substantially U-shapes from a leading end staple among staples, and then are driven out by a driver plate towards sheets of paper to be bound which are placed on a clincher.
It is required to sequentially transfer the sheet-type connected staples to a striking section, at the time of striking the staple. The stapling-machine main-body or the cartridge is provided with a push lever for pushing and biasing the sheet-type connected staples. The push lever pushes down the sheet-type connected staples against a bottom surface of the casing. Accordingly, it is possible to reliably transfer the sheet-type connected staples positioned on the bottom surface by the transfer mechanism.
Also, when the sheet-type connected staples in the staple-refill are consumed, a replacing operation of the staple-refill is performed. In the case of replacing the staple-refill, it is necessary to first perform push-releasing operation of the push lever. For example, the push lever is provided on a cover body for opening and closing the refill accommodating portion of the cartridge. In this instance, by opening the cover body, the push state of the push lever is released, and thus the staple-refill can be replaced. If the sheet-type connected staples are consumed and thus the empty staple-refill is replaced by a new staple-refill loaded with the sheet-type connected staples, by closing the cover body, the push lever is in the state of again pushing down the sheet-type connected staples.
In order to improve the operability of staple-refill replacement, it is required to further reduce the number of operating steps. Meanwhile, if there is no push lever, the push releasing operation of the push lever can be omitted. In this instance, however, since there is no push lever, accuracy in transfer of the sheet-type connected staples is deteriorated.